The city Board of Health yesterday approved a new version of a law requiring fast-food outlets to display calorie counts.

The law passed last year, which was challenged in court applied, to restaurants that were already providing nutritional information to customers. The new policy will apply to any chain that operates at least 15 separate outlets.

“It’s going to get a lot easier to make informed choices at New York City’s chain restaurants this spring,” said Margo Wootan, nutrition policy director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest

“We expect that many more cities, counties and states will require menu labeling once they see how easy it is for these chains to list calories on menus.”

The regulation takes effect March 31 and the restaurants will be required to display calorie counts “in close proximity” to items on their menus or menu boards in letters and numbers at least as big as the name of the item or the price.